July 21st, 2015 by Doree

The Greenwood Community Council meets tonight (Tuesday) to discuss public art on a new development, community grants, Mayor Ed Murray’s visit to Greenwood last weekend, and the city’s design review process.

The meeting is from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N.

Main items on the agenda:

7:05: Proposed Public Art for the Janus – (New building under construction across 85th from Fred Meyer). The people developing the Janus are hoping for support from the community council for a public art installation. They will bring a slide show and take questions and comments. (Potential action: expression of support for the art project)

7:25: GCC “Capacity Building” – The Greenwood Community Council is considering becoming a
registered nonprofit in order to receive grant dollars that can be used to improve the neighborhood. What would you like to see change for the better, and could nonprofit status help connect GCC members with resources to achieve the goals? We’d like your input as we decide the best way to build our volunteering and fundraising capacity.

7:55: Update on Community Council Activities

Report from the Mayor’s Greenwood Visit (Seattle At Work)

Land Use Committee report – NOTE POTENTIAL ACTION – The Land Use committee has prepared a draft letter responding to requests for comments on the design review process. To view the draft letter, click here. The membership will vote whether to amend or approve for transmittal.

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July 2nd, 2015 by Doree

The Greenwood Community Council is looking for volunteers to help with outreach and engagement, as well as a paid position to help with its website.

The new Outreach and Engagement committee will reach out to Greenwood neighbors and involve them in neighborhood activities and dialogue, participate in events representing the community council, coordinate plans for election forums, and add relevant content to the GCC website. The committee will probably meet monthly at a neighborhood coffee shop or pub.

June 12th, 2015 by Doree

The Greenwood Community Council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N., to discuss social services needs and responses in the neighborhood.

The economy has turned around in Greenwood. Businesses are filling storefronts that sat empty two years ago, cranes are on 85th St., million dollar houses are going in. Amid this prosperity though, there are many in need… (P)eople in need are more visible in the neighborhood, and there are many others who are out of sight.

So who is attending to the social service needs in our neighborhood? What trends are they seeing, and how well are public, non-profit and police working together to address the needs? And what are gaps that aren’t being attended to? This month’s membership meeting will address health and safety issues in the neighborhood and steps needed to do better.

April 21st, 2015 by Doree

On the agenda is a discussion of how the city’s new council districts will affect neighborhoods and community councils.

Last year voters approved a new method of selecting city council candidates, with seven members elected by district and two city-wide. District council elections will change Seattle politics dramatically. Three current city council incumbents have announced they will not run again, and everyone is wondering whether neighborhoods will have a stronger voice in budgeting, planning or policy, and (conversely) whether city-wide priorities will be neglected. Greenwood is bisected by the 5th and 6th city council districts, and over the next several months we will be meeting candidates hoping to represent us.

For community councils, city council districts raise all sorts of questions:

How should we be involved in vetting the candidates?

How should we work with other community councils and other neighborhood groups?

Does is make sense to realign the city’s district councils with city council districts?

Should we focus equal attention on the at-large council member races?

What key Greenwood issues do we want candidates to focus attention on?

We will have a general discussion about how the community council needs to change and react to the new district council context. We will also hear from a group interested in promoting campaign finance reform in the city, and get an update on activities taking place on our committees and around the neighborhood.

March 16th, 2015 by Doree

Just a reminder that the Greenwood Community Council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. The GCC is looking for new officers and board members for all positions:

President

Vice president

Secretary

Treasurer

Land Use Chair

Transportation Chair

Health and Safety Chair

Outreach Chair

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You can nominate yourself or someone else you think should consider the job. Ideal candidates will be available for occasional meetings over beer or coffee, respond to emails so we can make decisions, and be interested in creating opportunities for neighbors to meet developers and decision-makers, shape neighborhood priorities, or make things happen in Greenwood.

These are two year terms, but please be prepared to commit to staying involved for the coming year. Any kind of skills and diversity you bring to the board will be appreciated. Please give it some thought … but don’t overthink it.

If you’re interested in any of these positions, just show up at the March GCC meeting at 7 p.m. at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. For questions, email: info@greenwoodcommunitycouncil.org.

February 16th, 2015 by Doree

The Greenwood Community Council meets from 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N. The main topic on the agenda is a discussion about how much parking the city should require for new residential buildings.

A few years ago Seattle changed its development regulations to eliminate the requirement to provide parking in new multi-family buildings in areas defined as urban villages, or places with accessible and frequent transit service. Almost all of Greenwood fits that definition, and several micro-housing buildings are being built that will take advantage of that change by not including parking as part of the development.

There are advocates and strong feelings on both sides of this issue. Seattle’s previous parking requirements often required developers to include more parking than needed, raising the cost of living in new buildings and requiring residents who don’t own cars to help pay for their storage. Providing no parking at all takes advantage of unused public street space at no cost to the developer or tenant. When parking is scarce though, neighbors and their visitors have a harder time finding a place to park and need to walk farther to get groceries and kids to the car.

So what is the right amount of parking, and what should guide the city in deciding how much developers need to provide as part of their projects? The City Council has requested a review of parking requirement policies, and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) is preparing its analysis. Gordon Clowers is leading the team that will respond to the council, and at our February meeting he will discuss some of the factors DPD will consider in forming their analysis.

February 4th, 2015 by Doree

About 30 Greenwood neighbors met at the Greenwood Community Council meeting two weeks ago to discuss what the neighborhood’s new park could look like.

Seattle Parks and Recreation purchased the land directly north of the Greenwood Library, on the northeast corner of North 81st Street and Greenwood Avenue North, in 2011 with funds from the 2008 Pro Parks Levy. But since Parks didn’t have any development money, the three businesses in that small strip mall stayed, then slowly started moving out (they’re receiving city relocation assistance funds). The only remaining business is Manna Teriyaki, which is looking for a new spot in the neighborhood.

Bill Farmer, who lives in Phinney Ridge and has been involved in recommendations for the parks levies, spoke at the January GCC meeting about the process to date.

After voters passed last year’s parks measure, the Parks Department now has money to develop the site, along with 13 others throughout the city. Farmer said all 14 park sites will be developed sometime between 2016 and 2018. He explained that the sites will be developed in the order they were acquired, so the Greenwood site, which is about one-quarter acre, is about halfway down the list.

Community members, including two students from Greenwood Elementary School’s architecture club, weighed in on initial ideas for the park. Here are a few of their ideas and comments:

The park needs a safer street crossing, both North-South to the library and East-West across Greenwood Avenue. Perhaps a pedestrian bridge over 81st Street?

It would be nice to have the same kind of boulders that are at the library entrance and in the children’s area to tie the library and park together.

A place to sit similar to Ballard Corners Park’s concrete “sofa” that would tie in to reading/library. One little girl suggested a slide shaped like a book.

An active playground would be heavily used by all the families coming to the library’s weekly story times.

A gazebo or shelter would keep the park active even in winter or other rainy times, and could provide a place for bands to play during community events, or for the annual holiday caroling event.

Teenagers are often forgotten in the planning of parks – make sure to have something that appeals to them as well.

A small garden geared for young kids to teach them how to garden.

How would the park mitigate street noise and air pollution from cars?

How can we use the space while it’s in transition? After the building is torn down, would a fence go up keeping people out, or would neighbors be able to use the empty lot somehow?

Designing the park will be a community-wide process. If you’d like to be on the Greenwood Community Council’s email list to be notified of future park and GCC meetings, click here.

January 19th, 2015 by Doree

Tuesday evening the Greenwood Community Council will discuss the future park to be located across the street from the Greenwood Library, on the northeast corner of Greenwood Avenue North and North 81st Street. The site currently houses a strip mall with just one tenant left, Manna Teriyaki.

Our January meeting will kick off the process to develop a community vision for the new park that will be developed on the lot north of the library, where the minimart used to be. Bill Farmer will speak on the history of this site as a proposed park through inclusion for funding in the park district ballot measure that Seattle citizens passed last year and the implementation process. Bill was a member of the 2008 Parks & Green Spaces Levy Committee that resulted in acquisition of the site, and the Parks Legacy committee that helped develop the park funding ballot measure. He has followed this process over the years.

The majority of the meeting will be for brainstorming – what are the things a park could bring to the neighborhood? What uses should (and shouldn’t) it accommodate? What matters about how it’s designed? What should it be called?

The objective is to begin the neighborhood discussion that will ultimately need to involve many others in the broader Greenwood-Phinney area that this park will serve. Being proactive to develop a community vision will help designers develop a park we will use and feel ownership and pride in. The ideal outcome of this meeting will be to get discussion going and identify a core group to broaden the discussion to the wider community.

The meeting is from 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N., and is open to the public.